On the history and philosophy of the geography of religion in Germany

Métodos Espaciais

“…Os primeiros debates entre geógrafos e cientistas da religião sugeriram de modo diverso que: (1) os geógrafos deveriam se focar no efeito da religião sobre as pessoas, lugares e espaços, e os cientistas da religião em como o ambiente afeta as religiões; (2) que os primeiros devem se concentrar na Geografia da Religião, e os últimos na geografia religiosa; e (3) que os dois deveriam estar envolvidos em algum tipo de abordagem dialética (SOPHER, 1967;BUTTNER, 1980;PARQUE, 1994). Essas tentativas de imaginar e dividir o território acadêmico ilustram orientações bidirecionais com a religião e o espaço.…”

Approches spatiales des faits religieux

“…Cette attention aux représentations collectives et individuelles de l'espace émerge dans la notion de géosymbole 6 , « la structure symbolique d'un milieu, d'un espace, ses significations (Bonnemaison, 2004 : 26), qui constitue une des trois dimensions de l' « espacepaysage » identifiée par Bonnemaison. La géographie anglophone -notamment par le biais de la « humanistic geography » (Tuan, 1976) -présente un intérêt similaire pour les représentations et les valeurs de l'espace des croyants (Büttner, 1980 ;Cooper, 1992). Le programme de recherche de La « géographie humaniste » intègre l'étude du fait religieux dans la meure où il constitue un cadre de référence pour le croyant, cadre qui procure une structure stable dans la lecture du monde.…”

Spatial Theory and the Study of Religion

“…Despite earlier Christian missionary interest in the relationship between religion and geographical space, it was not until the late eighteenth century that the two were formally engaged in the scholarly project of Religionsgeographie by Gottlieb Kasche, and the possibility of a rational, non‐confessional geography – of which the environmental and social study of religion would be a part – was addressed by Immanuel Kant (Büttner 1980; Park 1994). Despite this developing disciplinary focus, little significant reciprocal interest by scholars of religion in space, place and geography can be witnessed before the twentieth century.…”

“…Early scholars of sacred space tended to operate according to the disciplinary distinction proposed by Erich Isaac (1960) in which comparative religionists and theologians should stick to ‘religious geography’, while those trained in the discipline of geography should occupy the territory of ‘geography of religions’. Since the work of Manfred Büttner (1974, 1980), however, that boundary has been contested and repeatedly breached. The comprehensive reviews of the state of geography of religion by Lily Kong (1990, 2001) cite the works of religious studies scholars, anthropologists and sociologists of religion as well as geographers [though Park's survey (1994) focuses on the latter].…”